The most widely used anionic surfactants in cleansing compositions are alkyl sulphates, polyoxyethylene alkyl sulphates and alkyl benzene sulphonates. These compounds are known to have good foaming and cleaning power. Due to their harshness, however, they are not desirable as components for cleansing compositions topically applied to human skin and hair. Their damaging effect, particularly where young, tender or damaged skin is involved, has been the subject of intense study for many years.
On the other hand milder surfactants often suffer from the disadvantage that they do not provide high foaming activity, which is very important for the consumer. Therefore, there is a long-felt need for products which are not only very mild but also possess an excellent foaming power.
Isosorbide (or 1,4:3,6-dianhydrosorbitol, see formula below) is the anhydride of sorbitol:

Upon heating sorbitol for example with concentrated sulfuric or hydrochloric acid, two molecules of water are eliminated with the formation of isosorbide. So far, these compounds are also known generally as dianhydrohexitols (including besides isosorbide also the isomers isomannide and isoidide).
Certain derivatives of isosorbide are known, especially esters or ethers thereof. Furthermore it is known to use certain isosorbide derivatives as additives in various applications, such as detergents, cleansers or cosmetic compositions. US 2002/0174596 A1 discloses various isosorbide ethers as detergent for fuels. WO 01/01949 A1 describes dimethyl-isosorbide as a component of a personal cleansing composition.
It was an object of the present invention to find new additives, useful in detergents and cleansers, based on isosorbide chemistry. It was found that certain anionic derivatives of isosorbide could be used with advantage in detergent, cleansers and related products, and most preferably in personal cleaning applications.